The price of XRP has surged by more than 370% over the past month from around $0.50 to now stand at $2.4, and the rise was seemingly fueled by whales using Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

According to CryptoQuant co-founder Ki Young Ju,, over the last 30 days minute-level price premiums on Coinbase for XRP ranged from 3% to 13% during the surge, suggesting that heavy buying activity was occurring on the exchange.

Meanwhile, Young Ju noted, Korean cryptocurrency trading platform Upbit, known for having more retail XRP investors than leading trading platform Binance, saw “no significant premium.”

https://twitter.com/ki_young_ju/status/1863524268753277039

As reported, whale activity for XRP has recently hit a new all-time high after the token’s price exploded upward over the past month, allowing the cryptocurrency to become the third-largest digital asset by market capitalization.

XRP’s stellar month can be traced back to multiple catalysts. First, Donald Trump’s recent victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election has bolstered expectations of a pro-crypto administration.

Investors are also eagerly anticipating the departure of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, expected on 20 January 2025, which could lead to a more favorable regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.

The price of XRP also surged after several firms filed to list a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the country, the latest one being WisdomTree, which joined Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital in the race.

The SEC has yet to greenlight a spot XRP ETF, and the regulator has been in a legal battle with a major player in the XRP sector, Ripple, since 2020. The SEC has accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion through XRP sales, deeming the token an unregistered security.

A significant legal victory for Ripple came in July 2023 when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that certain programmatic sales of XRP did not constitute securities transactions. However, the judge determined that direct sales to institutional investors were indeed securities offerings.

Data from CryptoQuant notably suggests that XRP whales are playing a major role in the cryptocurrency’s price surge, as their activity has hit a new all-time high.

Notably, CryptoQuant analyst Woominkyu  recently pointed out that historically,  significant spikes in whale-to-exchange XRP transactions “align closely with XRP price peaks.” A spike in these transactions recently occurred, pointing to a peak around the $2.3 mark and indicating whales could be “preparing for potential profit-taking or increased market activity.”

Featured image via Pixabay.